Thought For The Day: Armistead Maupin

"I think many gay people, if they do it right, end up as superior human beings because they've gone through this experience of having to keep their mouths shut. They've learned to view all of humanity in such a way as to be more compassionate than the average straight person who was raised knowing that they are acceptable in the eyes of the church, the government and their families. Those of us who've had to make our own way have become stronger and kinder. If you're lucky."

Armistead Maupin interviewed in The Independent (by a gushing simpleton).

Update: Damian Barr hits the streets of San Francisco for the Tales Of The City tour in Saturday's Guardian. I have to concede this is a lovely piece, Toryboy!

Armistead Maupin: No More Tales Of The City

In 1974, when Armistead Maupin began writing what became Tales of the City, he thought of it as "an in-joke about the way life worked in San Francisco". Four decades later, that in-joke has been shared by more than 6 million readers. His stories of interlocking gay and straight lives in the city constitute one of the best-loved of literary sagas. The New York Times described reading them as "like dipping into an inexhaustible bag of M&Ms, with no risk of sugar overload". Now though, after four decades, that bag is finally about to be exhausted. The series will conclude with Maupin's ninth book, Days of Anne Madrigal, published at the end of this month.

Quentin Crisp once introduced him with the boast: "This is Mr Maupin. He invented San Francisco." More importantly, Maupin virtually invented the mainstreaming of gay life and helped the world see that "the gay experience" was nothing lesser or greater than human experience...

The Observer.

About time she stopped flogging that knackered San Franciscan gay horse.

Only joking!!!

This is quite a "nice" interview, by the way.
Thanks for asking.

Though Fagburn's pretty sure she's called time on her Tales at least once before...

Thoughts For The Day: Armistead Maupin

"I came out of the closet while writing the [Tales Of The City] series. And what a revelation to realise that the thing that I had feared the most had become the source of my greatest inspiration and the cause of my success. My mother said to me, 'I don't mind you being honest, darling, I just don't want it to hurt your career.' I said, 'You don't understand, this is my career.' I knew very early in the game that my responsibility was to be publicly, openly, happily gay. That wasn't hard to do. I don't suffer closeted folks gladly. I let them know, especially if they're famous, that I think they have a responsibility. Years ago my friend Ian McKellen asked me how I felt about it and he told me that the evening he spent talking to me was what pushed him over the edge. I'm really proud of that...
"I have been conscious of being part of a cultural revolution for the past 35 years. There's no question that it's easier in some ways because gay folks aren't invisible any more. When I was young, many of us thought we were the only gay in the village. Now, because of that visibility, there's a much more concerted campaign against gay people, especially from the fundamentalist segments of America, and that means the pressure is much worse. Still, the polls now indicate that most Americans support the right for people to marry the person that they love. The battle hasn't been won yet, but we're close."

Armistead Maupin, Daily Telegraph.
Amused me to see the intro refer to his husband.

Great Gay Cliches Of Our Time....

"If I become President, I will describe myself as a President who happens to be gay, which is a different thing to a gay President," the "eccentric" David Norris - pictured above, being gay - tells The Irish Independent.
Sorry, I think The Irish Independent meant he happens to be eccentric.
I wonder how many other gay men aren't gay, they just happen to be gay?
Here's Alan Duncan; "I'm an MP who happens to be gay."
On Monday we learnt in The Guardian of "gay clergyman" "Gene Robinson's losing battle to be known as simply 'the bishop'".
Here's 'Armistead Maupin, A Writer Who Happens To Be Gay.'
Gareth Thomas - leading rugby pervert - "who just happens to be gay."
Bjørn Lomborg, are you gay?
"I didn't want to be the gay guy who talks about the environment. I wanted to be the guy who talks about the environment who happens to be gay."
Colin Firth were you playing Christopher Isherwood - a big gay or what?
No. It was "A guy who happens to be gay"
How about leading right-wing nutcase and also feasible presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, let's ask her!
"I have, one of my absolute best friends for the last 30 years who happens to be gay, and I love her dearly," she says. "And she is not my 'gay friend.' She is one of my best friends."
Who happens to be gay.
You betcha!